CNN television anchor, Chris Cuomo has been accused of sexual harassment by a former female manager at ABC News, according to Reuters.
Shelley Ross, a veteran television journalist and former executive producer who served as Chris Cuomo’s boss on ABC’s Primetime Live, alleges that Cuomo sexually harassed her at a going-away party for an ABC colleague in June 2005, while her husband was present.
Ross said he told her, “I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss,” and she responded, “No you can’t,” pushing him off while stepping back to reveal her husband, who had witnessed the whole episode.
Cuomo sent an email shortly afterward saying he was “ashamed.” in his email, he mentioned a celebrity who had been arrested for similar behavior recently, and apologized to Ross and her husband.
When asked for comment, Cuomo told the Times, “As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature. It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC. I apologized to her then, and I meant it.”
Cuomo, the host of “Cuomo Prime Time,” has faced criticism for his role in advising his brother, Andrew Cuomo, who resigned as New York governor last month over allegations of sexual harassment from multiple women.
Andrew, a Democrat, has denied touching any of the women inappropriately.
Ross has said she sees the apology as “an attempt to provide himself with legal and moral coverage to evade accountability.”
Ross has said she is not asking for Chris Cuomo to be fired from CNN, but would like to see him “journalistically repent: agree on air to study the impact of sexism, harassment and gender bias in the workplace, including his own, and then report on it.”
Natalie Pahz, a CNN spokesperson, said the network had no comment beyond that issued by Cuomo.
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